HUGGABLE NEON, AT THE END OF THE PRODUCTION ROAD
(STUFF THE CLOWNS INTO CANNONS AND FIRE! PRINCIPLE PHOTOGRAPHY HAS WRAPPED ON “THE GREAT DIVIDE”!!!)
HI, EVERYBODY! Last time we spoke, it was March 16th, at roughly 4:30 in the morning. I had just woken up to tell you that, in a couple of hours, I’d be heading to the set of my first feature film as writer/director/producer/composer. And that I’d try to check back in along the way.
Well, as fate would have it, it was ‘round about 5:15 this morning that I finally mumbled, “That’s a wrap!” to the tiny handful of diehard fellow travelers still remaining through our very last all-nighter, on the very last night of our shoot.
And so it came to pass that I drove home, weirdly wide awake. And at 5:45, I pulled back up in front of my house, then tumbled rapidly into bed, where I got a full three hours of sleep before waking back up with a strange sense of peace.
Because we fucking pulled it off. In six days of shooting, with almost no money, we made our movie.
The Great Divide is in the can.
This does not mean the movie’s done, by any stretch of imagination you or I might care to make. We’re actually wading back in for a couple pickup shots on Wednesday, once everybody’s gotten some actual sleep. And this will be a mere ribcage of our already-skeletal crew, coming back to grab a handful of connective dots in a smoky garage and a yoga room.
After that, I’ll sit down with that mountain of footage and go through it methodically, frame by frame. Doing what I like to call a “paper edit”, where I log every take of every shot of every sequence in a notebook by hand, going over every clip, jotting down the timecode ins and outs, and making notes of what’s worth noting (what happened, was it good, were there any usable seconds or minutes, any fun/funny/fucked/otherwise fertile qualities that stood out and might come in handy later).
I’m guessing this takes me about a week-anna-half. By then, I will hopefully have received “proxy files” of this dense RAW footage, complete with synced high-quality audio, which I will then use to spend the entirety of April cobbling together my first rough cut of the whole 90-minute film.
Then, and only then, will we all get our first glimpse of how our baby turned out.
So, yeah. Not even close to done. (After that, we have to polish it. And then we have to SELL IT! Which is a whole ‘nother mountain to climb.)
But from here on in, it’s all post-production. Cuz we have, as they say, wrapped principle photography. The shoot is officially over.
How do I feel? I can honestly say that I am painlessly thrumming inside my skin, exuding a nice warm glow that envelops me like huggable neon. And the word “painless” is particularly of note, here in context, because I spent most of my time on set in one degree or another of intense physical agony. (Can you say “kidney stones”, anybody? CUZ I SURE CAN!)
I am very happy, and also doubtless in shock, floating halfway out of my body from sheer exhaustion and elation. Between the wacky laughing and the ugly crying (and I’m just speaking personally here), I can honestly say that this has been one of the most intense, unforgettably indelible and rewarding experiences of my life. I can also say there were multiple times where I was not entirely sure if I was going to survive it.
Mostly, I’m in awe of the staggering array of beautiful performances and breathtaking shots I witnessed, delivered by my awe-inspiring cast and crew of teammates. Whether this film shows I was ultimately successful in my vision, I know that we wove a rich and complex tapestry of human experience, and created one hell of a ride in the process.
And as I predicted, a ton of fun behind-the-scenes documentation now exists. I’ll be sorting it through, to share with you. And boy, do I have stories!
As for now, though, I’m gonna recognize that three hours of sleep ain’t nothin’, and that I might wanna go back for more.
In the meantime, y’all have a beautiful day, okay?
Yer collapsible pal in the trenches,
Skipp
!!!!!!!
Heck to the yes!! Wrapped. What an accomplishment. Lots of footage in not a lot of time. Can’t wait to see what magic was made.